


Enough Rope : Outtakes

by Amber_and_Ash



Series: Enough Rope [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Gen, Outtakes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-12 00:43:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11725965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amber_and_Ash/pseuds/Amber_and_Ash
Summary: Things that didn't make it into the main fic for various reasons. Raw and unedited.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: I removed this from the main fic due to excessive preachiness. Bearing in mind just how preachy the main fic managed to be, you should know how bad this one is.

Steve had his most confused puppy dog expression on, and he couldn’t bring himself to ignore that.

“What’s wrong?” he said, resigning himself to another hand-holding session.

"I don’t understand. I was trying to have a discussion with someone, but she insists that privilege doesn't mean being rich. She says that it now means  -- " Steve paused to read off the screen, " -- the ability to assume other people will give you the benefit of the doubt. But that’s not privilege."

“There’s a kind of secondary meaning to the word that has become the most common. When people talk about privilege these days, they’re usually talking about the advantages people get for being born into the more powerful demographic.  So it can mean rich, but it’s just as likely to mean white, male, heterosexual, abled, or whatever. Usually, they’re trying to make the point that someone _with_ all those privileges has forgotten – or never realised – that other people don’t have the same advantages. You know, when you’re saying that Person A won the 100 meter sprint fair and square, but they know that Person B was forced to start half a mile back. The benefit of the doubt thing isn’t all there is to it, but it is part of it.”

“I don’t even get that bit!” said Steve, managing to sound grievously offended.

“Well, okay, let’s try some examples. They have two candidates for a job, and both have a wonderful resumé but were a little disappointing in the interview. They believe the man knew his stuff and just couldn't explain himself very well. They believe the woman screwed up because her CV overstated her qualifications. Or they have two people who walk out of a store with something they haven’t hasn't paid for hanging from the front of their trolleys. They believe the middle class white women did it by accident, so she pays up and forgets all about it. They believe the poor black teenager was shoplifting, so he gets a criminal record and loses his college placement. If people, especially police and other authority members, are just generally more likely to assume that you’re a decent, intelligent human being, then your life is just going to be so much easier in every possible way."

“Authorities should treat everyone decently!” said Steve, chin out and fists clenched.

_Like you’re so evenhanded when you give people the benefit of the doubt,_ he thought cynically. Out loud, he just said, “Maybe. But they don’t.  Look up Trayvon Martin or the Ferguson report. Actually, no don’t, we don’t have that many punching bags on hand. Look, Steve, this has been around for a long time, and it will be around for a long time more. All we can do is try to improve things as we go along. What brought all of this on, anyway?”

Steve pushed the tablet towards him like it was an annoying paparazzi camera. “This woman describes me as the most over-privileged person in history. She says I’m a parody of privilege - a blond haired, blue-eyed American male with eternal youth, physical perfection and world-wide fame.She says that I abuse that privilege to do whatever I want!”

He looked down to swallow his laughter. Poor Steve, having no-one left that thinks he’s just a kid from Brooklyn. His eyes caught on what Steve had been looking at, and his humour morphed into pity. "You’ve been reading the youtube comments. Oh Steve. _Never read the youtube comments._ "


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back when I was thinking of going into Loki’s actions in more detail, I wrote this bit to illustrate how Loki was manipulating the global narrative (while also slipping in a few self-deprecatory jokes about Team Iron Man). My plot ended up being too complex to support this thread, but hope you enjoy this glimpse.

Steve clicked on the recommended youtube link labelled, ‘How being Anti-Cap reveals your own bias’. After the other horrible things he’d been watching, it would be a relief to hear from the people who had their eyes firmly open.

_ “Remember when we got the story of how Loki fell into Thanos’s clutches?” _

Wait, what? When Loki what?

_ “Remember all those people that insisted on sympathising with him? He was just a person trying to do the right thing, they said. And when his good intentions went wrong, his increasingly desperate acts to make it right again were perfectly understandable, they said. Then, at the moment he thought he was honestly acting to save his planet and was smacked down for it? _ ”

Steve supposed someone could have come up with that description out of Thor’s painful and halting account of Loki’s attempted suicide, if one ignored half the facts. But how had that become public knowledge?

“ _ How mean and cruel it was terrible for Thor and Odin to have treated him that way, they said. Inhuman, they said. ‘Boohoohoo, how dare you call Loki a villain’, they said. Right? _ ”

Steve bristled. Suicide was a sin, and Loki had very clearly shown his lack of decency in later events. Blaming Thor for Loki’s inherent evil nature was unjust.

_ “Now, take Cap. He was honestly trying to do the right thing, but things went wrong. And everything he did after that might just have made things worse, but he was trying to make things right. So eventually he gets to the point that thinks he’s saving the world, but Stark rocks up to tell him, ‘Sorry, but your princess is in another castle.’” _

And just like that he had no idea what they were talking about. Really, was it too hard for people to speak these days without trying to prove they knew a higher percentage of in-jokes than their listeners?

_ “Remember all those people who harangued us to show more sympathy for Loki? Are they now telling us to feel sorry for Cap? Are they the ones calling Stark inhuman for saying Cap had lost the right to use his shield? Are they  _ fuck _. They’re all ‘Boohoohoo, how dare you call Rogers a hero.’” _

Language. But at least someone was calling out Tony for his blatant double standards and self-centeredness.

_ “It's obvious that their sympathy had nothing to do with the actual actions and everything to do with who was committing them. Was it the poor underdog, or the despicable cool kid? The misjudged nerd or the arrogant jock? Newsflash people. Those archetypes aren’t real life. No matter how much you project yourself onto them, the little guy isn’t always right.” _

Steve recoiled in horror as he finally realised the thrust of the argument. They were comparing his actions to Loki. Steve was nothing like Loki. He had been trying to save people, and Loki had been catering to his own ego. How could even his worst enemy make that sort of comparison? This youtube really was a cesspool of delusion and prejudice.

Also… why were they calling  _ Tony  _ the little guy?


End file.
